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Where there is good there is also evil. To the Autobots that evil comes in the form of the Decepticons.

5: Devastator/ Menasor/ Bruticus (G1): One of the things that I really loved about watching through the first two series of G1 Transformers was seeing the formations of the combiners since they all looked awesome and before I watched this I was a huge Power Rangers fan, so it was basically seeing evil versions of the Megazords. The first combiner that we see in the series is Devastator, and he gets the upper hand for the Decepticons, but we then see them start to be defeated by the Autobot more and more frequently. However, Devastator is also good as separate vehicles since that they are based off construction vehicles so they have been useful in building structures for the Decepticons. Menasor on the other hand was designed on more of a different matter and that being to match the Autobots on the ground since that the main design motif for the Decepticons was more militarized, these seemed to be more blended in for disguise, but when they were put into battle with the Autobots they had the upper hand, until the Autobots created their counterpart and they could beat Menasor. But the most intriguing of the combiners is Bruticus for the fact the robots created for him were built from Starscream after he was kicked out of the Decepticons and was going to use them to show Megatron how resourceful he is. But the interesting thing about this was that Megatron praised Starscream for what he had done, and then he wiped the memory of the Cons used for Bruticus and used it for himself.

4: Steeljaw (Robots in Disguise): For a series that I have just gotten into I found that Steeljaw is a rather interesting Decepticon. In the show, Steeljaw is shown as a Con that only wants one thing in life and that is being ruling over a planet full of Decepticons and he would do anything and use anyone to get what he wants. In the first series of the show, he starts getting his army ready, which is made up of the typical villain of the week and uses their abilities and sometimes sacrificing them to get captured to get the job done. I think another reason why I like this character is also because of his voice actor, that being Troy Baker, who makes this role his own and gives a menacing and devious character.

3: Starscream (Various): What can I say about Starscream that people already haven’t said before. He has delusions of grandeur wanting to become the leader of the Decepticons and become respected. But on the other hand, he is also a bit of a coward. He has also had a lot of good moments to throughout the various series and incarnations of the show with some of the best coming from G1 and Cybertron. One of my favorite moments from G1 was during the Transformers Movie when Starscream decides to take advantage of an injured Megatron by casting him and some of the other Decepticons out of Astrotrain since that Astrotrain was being weighed down. With this Starscream then became the leader of the Decepticons for a hot minute before he got killed by Galvatron. Another of my favorite moments is during Cybertron when Starscream uses the Earth Cyber Key and makes himself to be a rather strong opponent to the Autobots.

2: Megatron (Various): Megatron has been the leader for the Decepticons for a long time and he has had a lot of cool transformations from a gun, to a tank, to something that resembles the Batmobile. He is a no nonsense leader and can be rather ruthless at times, but he does see the good in the ideas, sometimes, that his team has. The one that I mentioned already was seeing the brilliant idea that Starscream had when he built his own combiner and then wiping the memory of said combiner to forget that he was created by Starscream. He also has had a lot of rather good and smart ideas compared to what the Autobots have done since that during the first few episodes of G1 when they attacked places to go and gather Energon to get on their way back home to Cybertron, they use green energy sources to generate Energon and that they were successful in getting Energon out of it. But with the good there are also a lot of problems that Megatron has and he does seem that he can be rather self-destructive, blaming his team for the failures that have happened over the many years and battles with the Autobots.

1: Soundwave (G1/Prime/Robots in Disguise): I love Soundwave for so many different reasons. The first is that his transformation is useful for a lot of the plots, since that in G1 the transform modes could change their size, and a lot of the times it featured Soundwave being the size of an 80’s radio being picked up by a dumb human. The second thing that I like about him is that he has Cassette-Bots that have proved to be rather useful for the Decepticons with Laserbeak being used for surveillance and Prowl used to hunt down any humans that can get away from them. Another reason why I like Soundwave is that in later incarnations he is a powerful fighter and is also cunning. During an episode of Robots in Disguise he was able to manipulate the ground-bridge in the Autobot base to escape a pocket dimension that he was in and managed to get Bumblebee into it. He also managed to beat Strongarm and Grimlock and he was also nearly able to set his plan in motion to signal other Decepticons back to Earth but he was stopped by Bumblebee who used his own tricks against him to put him back in the pocket dimension.

As a child growing up I loved watching Transformers Armada and its sequel shows, then I got into watching G1 Transformers and enjoyed that even more so I decided to make a top five lists of my favourite robots starting from the side of the Autobots first.

5: Rodimus Prime (G1): During the events of the Transformers movie, Optimus dies and the Matrix of Leadership then gets handed over to a few other Autobots, but at the end of the film then Hot Rod heeds the call of the Matrix and manages to defeat Unicron taking on the new mantle of Rodimus Prime. One of my favourite things that I like about this is that we get a new leader for the Autobots who doesn’t have that much knowledge on leadership, which does seem rather off putting but he was rather likable as a character.

4: Arielbots (G1): During the events throughout G1, the Autobots needed a way to defeat Menasor who had just been created by the Decepticons to up their forces and they were overpowering them. So, it was their decision to build their own combiner, this in the design of five Arielbots that were based on Cybertronian planes. Combining they form Superion and they manage to defeat the Decepticons Menasor. But there is something that I like rather more about them than the other combiners that are in the show, that I remember and that was that they ended up having some character development. In one or two episodes after they are built they are in a story where a few of them think that the Decepticons are alright and they accidentally get transported back through time where they end up meeting Megatron and Orion Pax. The Arielbots then discover how bad that the Decepticons were and they help Orion Pax beat Megatron and his Decepticons and they show their loyalty more when they realise that Orion is now Optimus Prime which is when they get back to the present, Optimus then realises them creating a possible change in the timeline or that the Arielbots were meant to go through time.

3: Optimus Prime (All): Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots and the usual main character in many of the Transformers media series and is the staple of the Transformers universe. The reason being, he is a great leader and a powerful fighter. Originally starting life as Orion Pax on Cybertron he adored Megatron but when he realised how evil he was he decided that he would stop Megatron as all cost. Another thing that I really like about Optimus through the Unicron Trilogy where we got to see him combine with characters like Jetfire, Omega Supreme and Leobreaker as usual finishing moves.

2: Grimlock (G1 & Robots in Disguise): The Dinobots are one of my favourite things about the Transformers series and I like them both in G1 and in Robots in Disguise. I like Grimlock in G1 since that he was pretty much a powerhouse and has a lot of good and funny lines through the series, but one of my favourite moments is in series 3. This is when Grimlock becomes super smart when helping the Autobots deal with anti-electrons and with this he then can create a new group of Transformers called the Technobots. For the Robots of Disguise series, I did start of being rather curious on why Grimlock was a Decepticon where they explain it rather well. But then he was then given the change of signa to the Autobots as Bumblebee entrusted him that much and since then he has been a good powerhouse for the Autobots but there is one episode that I have seen that does make him stand out. In the episode Deep Trouble, Grimlock gets hurt during a training exercise but he just passes it off as nothing to the team, but as the episode progresses it starts to hurt him more and more. He confesses it to the Bumblebee and apologises to him for hiding the injury since that it could have cost them the mission.

1: Bumblebee (Robots in Disguise): I am rather surprised that I didn’t put Optimus as the first on the list and there is a reason why, Bumblebee has more depth of a character for this than what Optimus has had in the past few series. Set after the events of Transformers Prime, Bumblebee is sent on a secret mission to Earth sent by Optimus Prime in a weird vision with him saying that a something bad is going to happen there. From there Bee is then joined by Strongarm and Sideswipe who accidently join him on Earth since that Strongarm is a cadet under Bee’s supervision and Sideswipe was under arrest at the time. Since then Bee’s team has grown a bit bigger when he enlisted the help of Grimlock, who was a prisoner on a transport ship and he then proved his worth to have Bee make him a Autobot. But something that did make him a good leader was in an episode where the team had to deal with prisoners that resemble skunks, and they could also spray to blind them. Near the end of the episode Bee concentrated hard on what he needed to do and in a bit of a Sherlockian way as well focusing on what he was going to do and It was successful managing to save his team, a city from being flooded and was able to capture the Decepticons.

With the many different shows that either have went through different reboots or films being made or have sequel series being made that are based around different stories nowadays I got to thinking, man are there a load of shows that I’ve missed watching. So this list is my own top 10 nostalgic shows that I’ve missed as well as some honourable mentions.

10. Yugioh

For me Yugioh was a really good television series that turned into a popular brand worldwide that still has people watching it today. The original series follows the tales of a young boy called Yugi and his friends participating in a tournament held by Maximillian Pegasus because he forced Yugi to play in it after capturing his Grandfathers soul. There along with his Millennium Puzzle discovers new friends and redefining characters for the series as well. This was so popular in Japan that the card game was actually made, three more additional series, four new spinoff series and two films. I get the feeling that this series is going to be around for a while.

9. M.A.S.K

For me M.A.S.K was a really awesome show when I grew up as a kid. I remember having it on video and used to watch it every week. It was focused around a sort of military background with a group called M.A.S.K (Mobile Armoured Strike Kommand) and they faced off against a faction that called V.E.N.O.M (Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem). The main reason that I liked about this show was that the cars and vehicles could transform from an ordinary car and turn it into a weaponized Bond-esq car. The show though only lasted for two seasons but for an 80’s show it did live up to the hype of Transformers and GI Joe.

8. Transformers

Now Transformers for me actually started out with The Unicron Trilogy series starting with Armada and I thought ‘By god what is this show’. I loved watching it as a child and found a lot of the characters to be easily identifiable in the series in a similar way to how films in the 80’s and 90’s had sort of stereotypical characters but at least you know who they were. I then discovered that they did have a original series that aired mid 80’s and I remember borrowing the film off a friend and thought man this is a good film and rather wished that I had watched the series that this film was about and I did get to see it years later when I got it on DVD. A lot of the times when I watched the original series I thought that it was weird how the Decepticons, though evil in general, went for a lot of green and safer ways to get Energon to try and either get home or destroy the Autobots which I think was strange that Optimus Prime never thought of doing that, using green energy to make Energon.

7. Arthur

Anyone in the UK who watched CBBC/ BBC1/2 when they had the children’s morning television at one point in time must have watched this show. I really liked watching this show when I was growing up and its nice for me to see that CBBC still have it on air, repeating old episodes along with airing new ones that were probably released in America in 2011. With a series that had a core focusing on childhood from dealing with school projects and friends leaving for possibly ever. I still think to this day that the story that was told when Buster found out that his Dad was going to be taking him around the world with the possibility of not returning was a rather good storyline for a kids show of it time. I liked watching it then and I still watching it now.

6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Their teenagers that are mutants, who are ninjas and are Turtles. This had got to be one of the craziest ideas that they must have had when they came up for this show. In the original series it seemed to be a rather cheesy animation again from the 80’s but I saw it aired during the 90’s over in the UK, and I got to say that it was one of the most weird series I had possibly had watched over the course of my childhood. But I then grew up with a newer version of the Ninja Turtles in 2003 when they debut with a near anime style to them and my god I enjoyed the series. It was really enjoyable series to watch when it was on CITV’s morning block and I used to watch it if I was awake at the time. The story for this was really imaginative especially after the second and third series and it was really enjoyable from what they had aired. I have also been really enjoying the new CGI incarnation of the series because it seems like to be a mix of the original series and the last series, with some cheesy ness of the 80’s but with the serious nature of the 2003 series. Also who thought that TMNT would have been as big as what Batman is like nowadays with the amount of different incarnations that have aired over the past twenty plus years.

5. Batman: The Animated Series

The show that probably defined a generation and was one of the best shows that I had possibly had watched on what I think could have been the either on Sky 1 or more likely Cartoon Network, since I lived in the UK and didn’t have the channel it was aired in America. I loved watching this show and then its futuristic follow up Batman Beyond. The characters were designed really well. Also the stories that they had for each episode was really fresh and that they also had a continuative narrative through some episodes it was done really well. It was also an introduction to two actors that also define the generation and voices for two of the most icon characters in DC history. That being Kevin Conroy being the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman who has reprised his role for the current Batman Arkham series and Mark Hamill as the iconic Joker who like Conroy brought back the Joker voice for the Arkham series games. Overall this series is really epic and it also brought us one of the now staple DC characters Harley Quinn.

4. Scooby Doo

Scooby Doo was one of the most recognisable shows that I have ever watched on CBBC, with the fact that they also re-air a few seasons of the show in their current broadcasting block, I always seem to enjoy watching it. I think that I really enjoyed the series because I always thought it was a really good show, I mean at the time the animation was okay but comparing it to the most recent incarnations it looks like a child drew the characters. Another thing that I probably liked about the show was the theme tune that went with it; it was fun and catchy and was a theme tune that you could even sing along with it. Another reason I liked it was that it seemed to keep rather fresh in some episodes, especially when it came to later seasons when they added guest stars to the show, you had also a mix of history and mythology to the series as well from Native Americans to Vikings I always got fascinated by this show and I kept on watching the show through to its following series and hope that the new series will do as well as the last series did.

3. Pokémon

Pokémon, a video game, a manga series, a card game and an extremely long television series. For me I can always remember watching this series and thinking wow this show looks awesome. When I was a kid watching shows like this and I always was quiet for half an hour being sat in front of the television watching it. There have been a lot of things that I liked about the show, like when Ash and company saved a Charmander and that it was one of Ash’s best Pokémon and then started turning into a real nuisance for him even more when it turned into a Charizard and it took him to the next season for Charizard to start accepting Ash as its trainer. I liked it because it was one of the first episodes to show the actual nature of Pokémon that it can change, in this case the worst, like humans do in real life. In overall I have watched, at least 75% of the entire Pokémon series, from Kanto to Kalos and always thought that Ash is possibly one of the smart/dumb characters ever conceived for a show. In the first season around a quarter the way through he captures a Caterpie, evolves it to a Metapod and evolves it to be a Butterfree only for him to go off with a pink Butterfree that isn’t even a shiny Butterfree in the games. He has always given away really good Pokémon like Primape and most recently a Goodra, one of the first Pokémon that he managed to fully evolve in the series. Never the less the writers for the show might end up writing some crazy thing in when Ash gets to the Kalos league and Goodra flies back to Ash like what his Gliscor did in the Sinnoh series.

2. Digimon

Now many people who see this may be amazed to see that I picked this over Pokémon because back then you were either Team Pokémon or Team Digimon. I was always on the fence and I always enjoyed watching both series. The reason why I preferred this series over Pokémon was the fact that it had much better characters and better designs. I still prefer it to Pokémon nowadays because it had a lot more better character development in the whole first arc of Digimon than the entire series of Pokémon. I think that I can remember also a lot more from Digimon in the first series than I can from Pokémon because it stuck with me more. I can remember the monsters of the week like Kuwagamon, Shellmon, Seadramon, Meramon, Andromon, I can remember the villain of the first arc better for his presence when we was there, commanding over everything and splitting the team to the furthest regions he could. I can also remember a lot of the voice characters that voiced Digimon to be really good mainly because they seemed to be a parody of famous actors and entertainers, for instance there was a Fridgemon who seemed he was nearly voiced after Rodney Dangerfield, I think, then you have Etomon who was a parodied version of Elvis Presley, and I think that the voice actor is back for the latest incarnation Digimon Fusion voicing Starmon. Also in the Digimon series there was a parodied version of Christopher Walken which I did find really hilarious. Never the less I always love watching the show, its storylines were always good to watch, the character always seemed to be real and it was fun to watch.

1. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

This was the defining show of my generation, defiantly if you were a boy. The show was pretty much non-stop action in most episodes and I think a lot of the times I always wanted to be a Power Ranger when I grew up. Along with this I always thought that this show, along with most of the anime that was on, was always an American concept. I think that it took me to when I was probably in secondary school to realise that Power Rangers was an American concept on a Japanese series. From there it did blow my mind that they were able to create a whole concept that aired in Japan to then adapt it for a Western audience. A lot of the character I can easily remember but the one that I and probably everyone in the world can remember is that of Tommy Oliver, played by Jason David Franks, who went on to reprising his character for five series when in three series he was a part of the main cast. I most recently got back into Power Rangers in the last year and a half watching Linkara’s History of Power Rangers series and it got me to wanting to watch the show again even though comparing it to the current line up seems a lot better in my point. Never the less I always looked forward to watching this show that I nearly over watched the first video I had of the show. Thank god for the digital age where quality is the only problem.

As people know Transformers 4 was a large hit throughout the world with a large mixed base of reviews from critics. But for me I really hated the film, and I stated in my Good, Bad and Dinobots blog on that but this is not going to be another disapproval of the film but what I and fans probabalies would have wanted to see from the film. Here’s how I think Transformers 4 Could have been improved.

1. Stick with the idea that the Autobots don’t need to be on Earth anymore. That was a more intriguing part of the film, you have Autobots hiding from this Taskforce as well as what could be taken as intergalactic bounty hunters where somebody is wanting Transformers to go back somewhere. I think that this was more interesting that the rest of the film but was replaced by boring storylines involving humans which shouldn’t be relevant for most of the film. Instead you have the Autobots to try and rescue the captured Transformers.

2. More and more films these days, especially in the Sci-fi genre are space exploration/ fights. Could you imagine what the film would have been if there was a shoot out between two rival Transformer factions battling in space would have been awesome to see, but alas we just had Earth and the many off screen killings of humans through the battle between the Autobots and the partical after effects Decepticons.

3.Cybertron, Unicron and the Quintesons. These three were the staple point of the original, and better, Transformers. Again going around the themes of space that if the film had these three things in it. For one Cybertron from the first Bay film was left in a uncertain state and even more uncertain when Sentinel Prime tried to pull Cybertron through a space gate. If the third act started the discovery that Cybertron was alive again in some parts then that would give the Autobots a new hope. This could then lead to a fight on Cybertron surface against the bounty hunters and then find out who they were working for, the Quintesons, who used the bounty hunters to retrieve Transformers from the Galaxy by any means to battle a threat coming their way, Unicron, ending the film. Another interesting point would be if the bounty hunters found broken Transformers like Megatron and dispersed them into space for them to cross into Unicrons path, there turning them into more powerful Transformers.

And these are my thoughts on how Transformers 4, but for all I know there could be ideas like this already been passed around for the next few films, or just completely over looked and another two films that are going to be a bore. But that’s for the future to decide.

Last week I went to see Michael Bay’s latest instalment of the Transformers franchise and the first thing I have to say it quite possibly could have been the best Transformers film Bay has done, but Revenge of the Fallen was better.

The Good-
So the first good thing about this film was the beginning of the film that showed dinosaurs which then references on to the Dinobots which were revealed I think last year ad SDCC, but I could be wrong about that, and also what looks like Cybertronian space craft on Earth as well, but there was also a bad point because it was a short scene and it didn’t really tell the audience that much which even though it is good build up technique it lead up to quite a disappointment.

The next good thing for me was actually a thing that bugged the hell out me the last trilogy and that were the human characters. As the main lead protagonist in this film Mark Walburgh did an amazing job over Shia LeBouf, his seems we’re really good either being the lone parent scenes with his daughter and the seems he has in the last act with Stanley Tucci, he was a lot stronger of a character and I hope that he is going to be in the next films, but maybe more as a minor which I’ll explain more in me bad points section. The next actor I liked in the film was Kelsey Grammer, he was a brilliant antagonist in the film, he was dark, mysterious and acted really well. It also seemed like a complete flipside to characters that I’ve seen him play minus Sideshow Bob, he was a really good antagonist and he played the part well. And the we get to the Tucci, in all retrospect his character is basically what I wished John Malkovich character was like in Dark of the Moon, he was funny and had quite a few good moments in the film and was a neutral character in the end.

Finally the point that I like was that it did have a lot of links into the original Transformers, the first being the dinobots and then the Gen 1 design for Optimus in the beginning of the movie. The next didn’t happen till I think later in the film when Optimus asked Lockdown who sent him there and he replied his creator which I then instantly thought the Quintesons who appeared in the original Transformers film and through season 3 of the show and there it was revealed that they created the original Transformers, so I’m really hoping that Bay does do the next film set around Cybertron.

The Bad-
With all films from this franchise it spends way to long focusing on both a human protagonist/antagonist story line, and with the show they did have human protagonists but a lot of the time they were helping the Autobots like the time when Spike and Carly went to Cybertron to find materials to help repair the Autobots, they were never centrally focused a major episode or arc for themselves or were a nuisance. Even the antagonist weren’t a problem because they were generally evil anyway because they were villains. So for the next film I’m hoping for a limited number of human story in the film.

The next thing I thought was bad about the film was the fact that it did rather steal an idea from Avatar buy having a element and giving it a really stupid name like Unobtainium, but with this film it was called Transformium which is in my view a really stupid name, a name like Cybertroinum seem to be a better name since they come from Cybertron.

The final thing that I thought was bad about the film was the new Decepticon transformation where it looks like the get split up into particles and then transform into their different forms, I really didn’t see the need for this decision because it looks so terrible, there was nothing wrong with the original transformation mechanics and hopefully it will be rectified in the next film.

The Dinobots-
The dinobots for me were a real hit and miss. When I saw the designs for them I was really disappointed about them, they looked unlike dinosaurs and they could have just adapted from the original designs which would have been a lot better for the fan base who grew up watching the originals or played the Fall on Cybertron game. So I hope that there may be better designed transformers in the future.

Overall the film did go over well with me but there were a few plot holes in the film, my biggest one was when did Optimus get a Jetpack, no where in the film did it show him either getting new parts upgrade like in Revenge of the Fallen/Dark of the Moon he just has it. It still bothers me but I have to get over it.

My overall score of the film 7/10 it was decent but the human stories and Dinobots design did ruin it for me.

So next year there are three films that to say feeling optimistic about seeing, they are Amazing Spider-Man 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers 4. First off I am a massive fan of each of these but I think that there will be a lot of critics going to have there a lot to say about them so I’ll get my licks in first.

First I’ll start with ASM2, I did enjoy the first movie a lot and I did like the casting choices like Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy and also the fact that Mary Jane is nowhere featured unlike Sam Ramini’s trilogy where she was pointed out to be Peter Parker love interest instead of the true love interest who was brought in as a cameo in Spider Man 3. Back to the film, first the original thing I like was that they were bringing Electro in as the main villain but then it was announced that Jamie Foxx was going to be playing the role which made me rather disappointed, also the fact that this is the AMAZING Spider-Man the character design for Electro is ULTIMATE Spider-Man. The next thing I’m not keen on is Rhino as a secondary villain, though this could lead to a Sinister Six story down the road, plus the film then makes the tie in game non existent in the time frame as the game had a cross species Rhino as a villain.Other than this I’m looking forward to it and hopefully it will be good as the first.

The second film on the list is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films and the second Michael Bay film involved that’s on the list. This one though I know very little of the subject I hope that it is better then the TMNT CGI film released years ago. I believe that this is going to be a origins film and CGI turtles which hopefully they’ll get right. The other thing I know about the film is that Shredder is going the villain of the film and I really hope that they get the design right for Shredder, mainly because this year in Wolverine the Silver Samurai reminded me of Shredder and that really disappointed me. But the thing that has be bothering me is Megan Fox as April O’Neil. To be honest I have always hated her roles like Transformers and Hope and Faith but for this I do feel optimistic cause everyone deserves a second chance.

And finally on this list is Transformers: Age of Extinction. For a film that shouldn’t really exist since director Michael Bay said that Dark of the Moon was going to be the last film he probablies thought that he could milk the series a little more. First I’ve been a fan if Transformers since I started secondary school and I really thought that this could have been a good film if Bay didn’t fuck it up. First thing I like about the film is that Dinobots are included in the film, dunno which one’s they are but finally something decent from G1 in the movie. But now for three things I really hate about the film. One the possible fact that Megatron/Galvatron is not going to be the main villain in the film instead it’s going to be Nemesis Prime, a dark copy of Optimus, I really hope that they will add Galvatron into the fold but that could be unlikely. The second is that there has been little mentioned about Unicron who would have been a better villain then Nemesis Prime and gives more of a feel of G1 then Armada. And finally they have put too much focus on human casting then they do about the actual Transformers. First they have a totally new cast for the film with I think a few recurring characters, but the only character I like about the film is that Kelsey Grammer is playing the main antagonist of the film which I’ll be looking forward to.

Overall these three films I am feeling optimistic about yet when I see em you will be reading my reviews about em to see if I was right.